Something About Nothing

 There were many mirrored inkblots in the sketchbook which challenged my imagination. This craziness started with a set of inkblots that looked like the one below. Starship Enterprise again? Horseshoe? Stingray? What do you see? The original inkblot can be seen on the left with it's reimagined mirror image on the right. I immediately saw these people who were bundled up in a parka, walking on a puddle. Maybe I should have extended the water across the entire page??? No original photo of this one, but I did immediately see elephant ears and trunk. Decided they were Elephant-ducks on ice skates. More inkblots were at the sides and were made in to the city with their reflections on the ice. I played with collaging a face out of this inkblot. Looking back I think I should have continued this idea. Oh well. This complex inkblot took on a whole different life. Two "people" (Maybe bears?) chatting chummily in the center, and then two odd chaps in large billed ball caps, each wit...

I know I shared this face already but I thought it needed to be in this post about the faces in my sketchbook. She was the first face I attempted to draw in this sketchbook. This was an attempt to work on shadows and highlights. I like how the background developed. This face started with a tutorial for a manga drawing, and they quickly told me they wanted to be more. More fabulous. Once drawn I realized they reminded me of author and performing artist, Alok. It wasn't intentional, but perhaps a subliminal influence. I keep drawing from my head, but think I need to do more from life or photos to get things down so I can be good enough to draw "off the top of my head." The shadowing was off on her. He head looked off. I looked at some photos of people in shadow to attempt to get her right. After I drew her I realized she reminded me of actor Jane Seymour. Another attempt at drawing off the top of my head. The eyes always seem so dead. I have realized there needs to be some ...

 I like drawing simple buildings and creating imaginary cities. This blob, that honestly looks more like the Starship Enterprise or a sideways creature, than a city, challenged me to become a city on a mountain side.  I took the challenge by watering down the dye and dragging it about to create the mountain, and then drew the city over the top. My friend, Sonja, said it reminded her of the Pussy Hats woman made and wore to the 2017 Women's March. The left hand page started with a flipped replica of the Starship, and became a city on a red hill. This page had a few beginnings. I didn't photograph each variation. Whatever was on there first, I really didn't like it so I painted it over with gesso, and then again with paint. I think that is how it went. Anyway, I loved the color combination, and painted a few pages in these colors. Once I started drawing the city, I wasn't sure if it would fill up the entire page. When I got to this point, I thought it might be nice to pai...

 I like throwing in pages from some atlas' I have laying around.  They don't have any special meaning. I just like maps. Was trying to see what I could do with some washi tape, a polka dot piece of paper, and a black marker. The black out poem and heart illustration belong with the next page of the book. The map is actually the opposite side of the page below.  Went a bit more in depth here. Right side is the atlas with a few of my additions. Left side is my imaginary map. A continuation of the atlas. A bit more color added to add more depth to the land masses, as well as a big ol' splash of water in the upper right hand corner. I like drawing sea creatures coming out of the water. I like this page. And speaking of sea creatures. . . . . .these two sperm whales made their way to the inside cover. They are enjoying a meal of something delicious. Like the inside cover whales, many of my drawings come about from the drips that duplicated themselves within the pages. After dr...